Syntax and Pragmatics

8/11/2019 Syntax and Pragmatics

1/56

Syntax and Pragmatics

Chs. 5 and 8


2/56

Definition of Syntax

Syntaxstudies theorganization of words intophrases and of phrasesinto sentences, including

the rules that dictate suchformation

Units: words andphrases (constituents)

Words are referred to aslexicalcategories, andphrases asphrasalcategories

Lexical categoriesinclude nouns, verbs,adjectives, adverbs,adpositions, determiners

Phrasal categoriesinclude noun phrases,verb phrases, adjectivephrases, adverb phrases,adpositional phrases,

determiner phrases, andsentences


3/56

Approaches to Grammar

Functionalist Grammatical structure is

strongly influenced bycontext

Context strongly influences

meaning of grammaticalstructure

Meaning of grammaticalstructures (constructions)develops along acontinuum, from frozenidioms to more flexibleconstructions (templates)

Continuum of varyingdegrees of compositionalityof meaning

Formalist Grammatical structure is

independent of context

Context does not influencemeaning of grammatical

structure Meaning of grammatical

structures is the result ofcomponentiality: the sum ofthe parts


4/56

Compositionality

Much of meaning is

compositional: it results

from the adding up or

relating the meanings of

morphemes and wordswithin their phrases, and

adding up or relating the

phrases, phrase by

phrase, until you arrive atthe meaning of a

sentence

Example: the river

by the river

the pond by the river in the pond by theriver

beavers

beavers in the pond bythe river

with gusto tasty fish

eat tasty fish with gusto

beavers in the pond bythe river eat tasty fish

with gusto


5/56

Compositionality

Linear compositionality:

Meaning of a sentence is

the sum of its parts

Previous slide has example

Also:A guy who wants totalk to you is at the door

Non-linear

compositionality:

Discontinuous constituents

breakup linear accretion of

meaning E.g.A guy is at the door

who wants to speak to you

This is a case of

extraposition: a relative

clause is extraposed ormoved outside of the noun

phrase it modifies

Also wh-fronting


6/56

Non-compositionality

However, some meaningis non-compositional:i d ioms, linguisticexpressions that are

syntactically and/orsemantically idiosyncraticin various ways

Examples: All of a sudden

In point of fact Kith and kin

Tickle the ivories

While some idioms arefrozen, others are morelike templates into whicha variety of words can be

applied: The X-er, the Y-er (e.g. the

longer you practice, thebetter youll become)

Nth cousing (M timesremoved) (e.g. secondcousin, three timesremoved)

Pull NPs leg (e.g. Dontpull my/his/her leg)


7/56

Compositional-Non-

Compositional Continuum Some linguists see

the difference

between

compositional andnon-compositional

meaning as a matter

of degree

Words/lexicon: this,green

Syntactic categories:Determiner, Adjective,

Verb, Noun Morphology: Noun-s,

Verb-s/-ed

Idioms: all of a sudden,pull-s/-edNP-s leg,

Syntax: SBJ be-TENSEVERB-en(by OBL)passive sentence


8/56

Reference and Predication

Referring expressions

(referents):

Entities (people,

places, things, ideas,events)

Noun Phrases

E.g. Judge Judyhas a

daughter

Predicative

expressions

(predicates):

What is said aboutentities

Verb Phrases

E.g. Judge Judy has a

daughter


9/56

Sentence

A sentencetypically

consists of a verb

phrase (predicate)

and a noun phrase(referring expression)

A simple noun

phrase-verb phrase

sentence is called aclause(one referent,

one predicate)

Clauses then are

formed of phrases,

also called

constituents: Structural units

relevant to the

organization of

phrases and clauses


10/56

Clues to Constituency

Grammaticality of possiblestrings of words Harry liked Peeves

A: Harry likedis not aconstituent

B: liked Peeves is aconstituent

Grammaticality of word orderrearrangements (movements) The farmer saw the

poltergeist

The poltergeist, the farmer

saw it Poltergeist, the farmer saw

the

The, the farmer sawpoltergeist

Substitution by pro-forms (e.g.pronouns, proverbs,proadjectives, proadverbs) He liked Peeves: Harry

substituted by He, a pronoun

He did: Liked Peevessubstituted

by did, a pronoun (e.g. Did helike Peeves? Yes, he did).

Structural ambiguity: He sold the car [to his brother [in

New York] ]

Paraphrase: It was to his brother

in New York that he sold the car He sold the car [to his brother][in New York]

Paraphrase: In New York hesold the car to his brother


11/56

Linear Ordering

Phrase structure behavesaccording to linear orderand hierarchical orderprinciples

For example: John glanced at Mary

Mary glanced at John

Both sentences haveSubject (Doer)-Verb-Object (Patient) wordorder

In English, the subjectrole (doer) comes beforethe verb, and the objectrole (patient) comes afterthe verb; thus, relative

linear order of the twowith respect to the verbmatters!


12/56

Hierarchical Structure

In addition, sentences aremade up of groupings ofwords into semanticallycoherent groupings, or

constituents, which makeup phrases

For example: We need more intelligent

leaders

Has two meanings, eachone based on a differentgrouping of words

Structural ambiguitytellsus that a single phrase(more intelligent leaders)can have different internalstructures

We need more intelligent leaders

We need more intelligent leaders


13/56

Structural Ambiguity


14/56

Practice 1

Figure out what the alternative groupings

are for each of the following structurally

ambiguous phrases

I like to eat nutritious foods and drinks

Do you want to try on that dress in the

window?

I saw an alien with a telescope


15/56

Practice 2

Apply whateverconstituency test worksbest to the followingsentences and answer

whether the underlinedphrases are constituentsor not:

The clouds rolled acrossthe sky

My uncle crashed ournew car

Some students hatecomputers

The bride and groom ranout of the church

The men wept Michael suspects his wife

had an affair


16/56

Major Constituents of a Sentence

Verb Phrase

Harry liked Peeves

Siubhan goes tothe

store The giant sleeps

Noun Phrase

Prepositional Phrase

Adjective Phrase

Adverb Phrase

Every phrase has a

head

In a VP a verb is the

head In an NP a noun is

the head

In an AP an adjective In a AdvP an adverb

In a PP a preposition


17/56

Syntactic Functions or Categories

Lexical:

Content: Noun (N), Verb (V),Adjective (A), Adverb (Adv)

Functional: Preposition (P),Determiner (Det), Auxiliary(Aux), Degree word (Deg)

(handout) Lexical categories are

determined by meaning,distribution of inflectionalaffixes, and their context

within phrases (handout) Phrasal

Each type of lexical categorycan make up the headof aphrase

A noun (N) makes up a noun

phrase (NP) A head of a phrase can take

modi f iers:

A specifier(Spec): thebook,

quite hungry, will go; sister of

XP A complement(Comp): an

entity implied by the meaning

of the head of the phrase;

sister of X

the hamburgerin (The

customer) may eat thehamburger [thing eaten]

the housein Almost in the

house [location]

An adjunct(Adjunct): sister

of N


18/56

Lexical Categories

Lexical categories can be defined by:

semant ics(e.g. objects = nouns, properties =

adjectives, actions = verbs)

aff ixat ional distr ibu t ion(e.g. nouns do not takeed,but the do takesplural; verbs are the exact

opposite; only adjectives take comparativeerand

superlativeest)

com binator ial dis tr ibut ion

(e.g. nouns can bepreceded by the, but not by the auxiliary will; verbs

can be preceded by the auxiliary will, but not by the)


19/56

Verb and Noun Phrases

NP VP

Alex Disappeared ___0

Bobs nephew spilled the potion1

That nerd with the studring who came by the

other day when you

were asleep

won the bike1in acontest2 over by the lake


20/56

Active and Passive Sentences

A1: Zelda auctioned

the famous wooden

spoon

A2: The famous

wooden spoon was

auctioned by Zelda

A3: The famouswooden spoon was

auctioned

A4: Famous wooden

spoon auctioned


21/56

(Hierarchical) Structure

Dependency

Much of grammatical structure depends on

hierarchical relations, not merely linear

order

Active: The judge fined an old plumber from

Pasadena

Passive1: Old plumber from Pasadena

judge was fined an by the Passive2: An old plumber from Pasadena

was fined by the judge


22/56

Phrase Structure Rules

NP (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)

VP (Aux) V (NP) (NP) (PP)

PP (Deg) P (NP)

AP (Deg) Adj (PP)

Adv (Deg) Adj

S NP VP

S S CONJ S

Deg, Det, Aux = SPECIFIERS

Adv = adverb

Adj = adjective


23/56

Generalizing

XP

(SPECIFIER) (COMPLEMENT) X (COMPLEMENT)XP XP CONJ XP

XP (SPECIFIER) (COMPLEMENT) X (COMPLEMENT)

NP Det AdjP N PP

VP Aux AdvP V NP NP PP

AdjP Deg AdvP A PP

PP

Deg P NP


24/56

Lexical Categories:

Inflection and Combination


25/56

Phrasal Categories


26/56

Tree Diagrams

Tree diagrams

represent: Linear word order

Hierarchical structure Constituent groupings

Syntactic Functionsor Categories

Lexical categories

Phrasal categories

Grammatical relations

The sameinformation can berepresented withbrackets, []

I ate the chocolate

[S[NP=SJI] [VP[Vate] [NP=DOthe chocolate]]]

VP

NP = DO

NDetVPRO

NP =Subject

S


27/56


28/56

Phrasal Modifiers I: Specifiers


29/56

Practice 3

Draw tree diagrams forthe following phrases andlabel all the nodes ofeach tree:

those mugs these plates

extremely tall

somewhat short

almost under

not-quite over should bathe

will bathe

Now, for two of the

phrases, use the

bracket convention to

show their structure

Phrasal Modifiers II:


30/56

Phrasal Modifiers II:

Complements


31/56

Practice 4

Draw tree diagrams for

the following phrases and

label all the nodes of

each tree: the story about the hobbit

very confident about my

results

might destroy the comet almost under the table

the bone with tooth marks

Now, for two of the

phrases, use the

bracket convention to

show their structure


32/56


33/56

Generalization: XP Rule

NPs, VPs,APs, and PPs

have same

structure!


34/56


35/56

Practice 5

Draw tree diagrams for each of the

following sentences:

Sue put on her hat

Sue put her hat on

Sue put her hat with red flowers on

He threw the book away

A rather large dog left a bone on the carpet


36/56

More Structure Still

do sofunctions as a pro-form here; it substitutes for the part of a VPthat does not include the auxiliary, only the verb and its complement

onefunctions as a pro-form here; it substitutes for the part of an NPthat does not include the determiner this, only the noun and itscomplement


37/56

An Intermediate Level: X-Bar

V is intermediate between VP and V

nodes

N is intermediate between NP and N

nodes

X Bar and Pro Form


38/56

X-Bar and Pro-Form

Substitution

Pro-form substitution isusually the best way to seethe X-Bar structure oflanguage

Example: I know this [readheaded

student] better than that[one]

**I know [this readheadedstudent] better than [one]

onesubstitutes for

readheaded student, notthis readheaded student

In other words:

[the [readheaded[student]N]N]NP

A h E l


39/56

Another Example We sold the box of crackers

with the green label

**We sold the box with thegreen label of crackers

Here of crackersis moreclosely related to the boxthan with the green labelis:

[NP [DET the [N' [N box][PP of crackers]] [PP withthe green label]]]

But note this is not true of: The man from Paris with

grey hair

The man with grey hair fromParis

Why?


40/56

(Generalization: X-Bar Levels)

Thus, it is time for moregeneralizing:

(Multiple X-Bar Levels and


41/56

(Multiple X-Bar Levels andModifiers)

An adjunctis a modifier that

is higher up in the hierarchy

(closer to the NP node) than

the complement modifier,

which is closer to the N node

Specifier: directly under XP

Adjunct: directly under first

X below XP

Complement: immediately

above X


42/56

Complements and

Subcategorization

The verb putnormally

requires

(subcategorizesfor)two complements: an

NP (direct object) and a

PP (location/target)


43/56

Subcategorization

Some verbs are not very strict in theirsubcategorization scheme:

After getting home, they ate(the sandwiches)

Others are very picky: **After getting home, they devoured

After getting home, they devoured thesandwiches

Devourrequires a complement

C


44/56

Complements


45/56

More Complements


46/56

And Coordination

Conjunctions can coordinate like constitutentswith one another

English generally uses conjunctions for thispurpose: and, or, but, neither nor, either or

More Rules:


47/56

More Rules:

Adjuncts, Complements,

CoordinationThe asterisk means

that there may be

more than one

constituent beforethe conjunction


48/56

Practice 6

Draw tree diagrams for the following

sentences:

You say goodbye and I say hello

The answer soon became apparent to the

student

We dashed across the field


49/56

Recursion

Sentences withinsentences: [I said [I know]]

[I know [I said [I know]]]

[[I said it] and [I believe it]]

Noun phrases withinnoun phrases: [three coins in [the

fountain]]

[[dear hearts] and [gentlepeople]]

Verb phrases within verbphrases: [likes to [play games]]

[[stop completely] and [lookboth ways]]

Prepositional phraseswithin noun phraseswithin prepositionalphrases

[for [a vacation [in [themonth [of [May]NP]PP]NP]

PP]NP]PP

T f ti


50/56

Transformations

A transformationis an operation that movesa lexical or phrasal category (e.g. N, NP, V,VP) from one location to another within astructure

Consider the sentences:

Some linguists argue that the sentencesabove are related: that they all stem from (aresurface structuresof) the same basic,underlying structure


51/56

Movement

Thus, if we look atsentence 11a, andwe assume

movement of thetensed verb (has)has taken place,resulting ininflection

movement, andalso movement ofthe wh-interrogative(as a type of pro-form) from the NP

position dominated


52/56

Movement

We can arrive derive

one sentence fromanother throughsimple movementoperations based onthe same underlying

structure: I-Movement

Wh-Movement

Both 11a and 12a areaccounted for bysingle process, andthis proposal upholdsobservation thatconcealcan take only

one NP complement

Other types of movement: NP-

Movement


53/56

Grammaticalization

Free morphemes can

undergo semantic

shift as a result of

innovative uses in agiven syntactic

context; over time,

such morphemes can

become boundmorphemes

Examples: English willfuture

auxiliary < want

French est-ce que

question marker < Isit that?

Finnish rinnachest;postposition < chest

-fulof spoonful(< Ineed a spoon full ofnutmeg)


54/56

Grammaticalization

Meillet: the attribution of

a grammatical character

to a formerly independent

word

Grammaticalizationtheoryis a very active

subfield of linguistics

these days

English will:

originally meant to want (e.g.

have the will, if you will, good

will)

became semantically

bleached(lost its sense ofwant) and was

grammaticalized as a future

marker (content > function)

now it is contracted often, as

in Ill, Hell, Shell, etc.


55/56

Grammaticalization: Major Traits

Objects ofinvestigation Changes from

content/lexical item to

functional/grammaticalitem (often from free tobound form)

Changes fromdiscourse structure tomorphosyntactic(case) marking

Associated semanticand morpho-phonologicalprocesses

Semantic bleaching

Phonological reduction

Loss of morphemicindependence (free

morpheme > clitic >affix)


56/56

Typical Grammaticalization Changes Auxiliary < main verb

English will future auxiliary< will to want

Aspect marker < mainverb Habitual < to live, stay,

go, sit, use

Terminative < to finish

Progressive/habitual

Syntax and Pragmatics

Documents